


Small Mercies

by Jersey



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Freelancers - Freeform, Gen, Memories, Project Freelancer, psychological damage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2014-09-16
Packaged: 2018-02-17 14:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2312684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jersey/pseuds/Jersey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short musings of Wash on the remnants of Maine. Set during the hunt for Epsilon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Mercies

The Meta is perhaps the perfect partner. It – for Agent Washington is not certain if he can accurately refer to his partner as a ‘he’ despite a full complement of male reproductive anatomy – is quiet, professional, and clean in execution. It does not waste time with pointless drivel of conservation, is fearless beyond compare, and utterly indomitable. It does not expend needless energy and thought on emotional pursuits, devoid of any semblance of sympathy or empathy.

However, in the seemingly vast stretches alien silence spanning between them, Washington wonders what is left.

Once, the Meta had been a man, a partner as well, a compatriot. Maine. He had been a freelancer like Wash, equally as skilled in combat, precisely trained and groomed for battle. Maine had been an aggressive combatant, a terrifying foe in both action and on the training room floor. Yet, he had been a man, like any other. He had been quiet but sharper than a serpent’s tooth and just as deadly. He had been a human. Hell, he even used to joke around with Maine in their own way, each of them wordlessly setting up enemies on the other.

Warriors always know one another in a way. They may not speak their lives or share their thoughts, but there is a familiar bond between members of a team or squad. They know one another. They telegraph their thoughts to one another with ease, giving the impression of telepathy. He had known Maine as much as he had known Carolina, York, North, South, any of them and all of them, without actually knowing a thing about any of them.

Now, Wash doesn’t know what the Meta is.

The body is human, yes. Wash knows this for a fact. He has seen the Meta eat and drink, consuming food without tasting it, mechanically chewing and swallowing. He has driven while the Meta slumbers in the backseat of the Warthog before switching off to cover more ground. Wash has even accidentally stumbled across the Meta urinating out in the open, without regard for any prying eyes. All these decidedly mortal and human needs, Wash has seen.

Yet, Wash does not know how much of the human remains in the Meta beyond the biological demands of the body. After the implantation of Sigma, there had been a shift in Maine. A subtle, soft movement of the mind, too still for most to notice. Maine had always been a man of few words before his injury. Afterwards, Sigma did the talking. Always Sigma. It had been hard to see the change, then.

It was not until after, well beyond the crash of the _Mother of Invention_ , when Wash knew that the man he had once known and worked beside. He has seen the footage of Maine ripping the AI implants from Carolina before pitching her from the cliff. No. He has seen the footage of Sigma stealing Eta and Iota from Carolina. Wash has known since that something profoundly fucked occurred with Maine’s implantation, possible worse than his own experience with Epsilon.

Wash still wonders, though, what is left, if there is anything left. He knows that Sigma has consumed much of what was once Maine’s mind, overriding the freelancer. He knows that the further additions of Eta, Iota, Omega, and more has further eroded Maine’s consciousness. However, Wash still wonders if there might be something left, some tiny kernel or fragment of Maine lurking beneath what he knows to be the Meta.

Wash hopes there isn’t; it is somehow immensely kinder this way.


End file.
